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Banking in Israel has its roots in the Zionist movement in the beginning of the 20th century prior to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. History of Zionism|Timeline of Zionism|World Zionist Organization|Zionist political violence Zionism is an international political movement that originally supported the For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Israel topics. The World Zionist Organization established the Anglo-Palestine Bank in 1903 (which later was renamed to Bank Leumi). The World Zionist Organization ( Hebrew: ההסתדרות הציונית העולמית or WZO, was founded as the Zionist Organization ( Hebrew The two largest banks control over 60% of the banking activity and the top five over 90%.

Most of the banks were nationalized when their stocks collapsed in the 1983 bank stock crisis. The Bank stock crisis was a financial crisis that occurred in Israel in 1983 during which the Stocks of the four largest Banks in Israel collapsed and were Since then the government has sold much of its bank stock holdings, but still remains a large stock holder in many of the now privately held banks. The government sold Bank Hapoalim in 1996 and HaMizrachi in 1998. The government also sold a major part of its stock in Discount bank in 2006, and of Leumi in 2005.

Contents

Israel's five largest banks[1]

Banking group Established Number of
Branches		 Total Assets
(NIS billion)		 Share of
total
banking system
assets		 Share of
total
banking system
credit		 Share of
total
banking system
deposits
Hapoalim group 1921 320 273. The Israeli New Sheqel ( ( sign: ₪; code: ILS) (also spelled unofficially shekel; pl Bank Hapoalim (בנק הפועלים lit Bank of the Workers) is the largest Israeli bank 3 30. 0 31. 3 29. 1
Bank Leumi group 1902 232 272. Bank Leumi (בנק לאומי lit National Bank) is an Israeli Bank. 8 29. 9 29. 9 30. 2
Discount Bank group 1935 195 154. Israel Discount Bank Ltd (בנק דיסקונט לישראל בע"מ ( I 8 17. 0 14. 2 17. 7
United Mizrahi-Tefahot Bank group 1923 123 86. 3 9. 5 10. 9 9. 7
First International Bank group 1975 103 71. 9 7. 9 7. 3 8. 4

Bank mergers

There has been limited merger activity within the Israeli banking system. Mergers have mostly been limited to the merger of mortgage banks with the leading banks in their banking groups and some small banks have been bought by larger banks to take advantage of economies of scale.

Supervision and regulation

The Bank of Israel supervises Israeli banks via the Supervisor of Banks. The Bank of Israel (בנק ישראל بنك إسرائيل is the Central bank of Israel. The tasks and authority of the Supervisor of Banks are based on several laws:[2]

Notes

  1. ^ http://www.bankisrael.gov.il/deptdata/pikuah/skira05/ch-aa_e.pdf Israel's Banking System - Annual Survey 2005
  2. ^ http://www.bankisrael.gov.il/abeng/1-9eng.htm Bank of Israel - Banking Supervision
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